oh no! / possible car change looms.../ mpg update

Well the car runs great after the recent enormous spend.
Brakes are much better and Ive now started to 'push' them a bit more ....

Annoyingly I managed to bump into a very low bollard while parking at work this week !!!
What a muppet , a moments carelessness not thinking while reversing
Damage limited to some lower bumper scratches thankfully.


On a side note we are now considering a new mini cooper s !
My wife wants to drive again and thinks they are really cool :-)
So I guess we will get a test drive soon and take it from there......

Date-------Cost--Litres--Gallons--Mileage-ltrs/mile---miles/gallon---TotalMileage---Type
21/09/04-44.05--51.28--11.28-----308---0.2------------27.3--------60805 -----OPTIMAX

wahey , now up to 27 MPG after the manifold replacement , and Im telling you thats good for the last week or so as Ive really been pushing the car hard. Had a training course which required some high speed back road testing LOL...
Lets just say I needed a 6th gear more than once ......


Re : Manifold failure..
For other coupe owners , I bought the car with a new style (ribbed) manifold already fitted.
This had failed at the base where all the ports join into one. Just a small hairline crack.
From the fccuk forum it appears that this is the common failure point for later style manifolds.
This has been replaced with the same style which should hopefully last at least a year.

While I remember the noise it made when cracked was a lot like a bearing / low oil pressure problem!!!
Symptoms were a loud tick under light load when cold. At idle is was quiet.
This would go away after 10 mins driving. But return after even a very short stop (even if oil was warm) , presumably because the exhaust cooled very quickly.

Thankfully the car is now silent (and no tappet noise either) when started from cold.


J